the long tail addressed here...jerome's doing the heavy lifting at the short head...

i hope to have lots to share over the next few months, with the installation of minimum 2.5 kw of pv panels, and possibly a add-on greenhouse to help heat in winter.

i also need to install/build water containers to store rainwater and solar-pumped water from the well, to water plants and trees. using water that's too cold fresh from the well is not good for them, plus it just feels right to catch more rain.

just got a a++ rated new fridge/freezer, and have ordered a woodstove which will heat the water in winter, the whole house, and provide an oven for casseroles and bread.

am getting permit to build outside pizza oven.

there ai so much free wood to burn, it makes sense to use it, plus the old method of piling brush and burning it seems wasteful, and in summer is illegal, obviously.

i bought an electric shredder, but have used it only a little, as it pulls 2 kw, and i want to get that juice coming from the sun before i get it going bigtime.

having tried it out, i'm really happy with its ability to create instant mulch from branches up to 4cm wide, excellent for aerating compost piles too. this will be a huge benefit in my soil building, and will make short work of sunflower stalks too.

sunnies grow really well...as in: toss seeds out onto untilled ground and have them come up, but in tilled soil and with watering they thrive like crazy.

apart from usefulness in appetite-suppressing healthy nibbling, a hydraulic press could provide me with good oil, for eating, massaging and even for running a tractor.

i don't hardly use the tractor a few days a year anyway...

monday an bio-engineer is coming to spec out the property for all the potential, and he confirmed that there are some very favorable new laws in the pipeline, to encourage solar energy farming and for add-on greenhouses.

i was just about to plonk down 30% of the solar panel money, had a flash to call a friend, who turned me on to this engineer.

...who told me the panels i was about to buy (chinese) lasted half as long as the ones he sold (german), which also produced up to 5 times the power!

cost a bit more, and he wouldn't be pinned over the phone to the percentage diff.

besides he was raving how i wouldn't have to put out any capital, and good get paid to produce with others' investment, with immediate unlimited free electricity from now on..

will sift through all this new info added to the soup tomorrow and report.

i have a small 5m day-sailboat moored on the lake half an hour's drive away i can sleep out on in the summer, it's fun to go out to the nature preserve bird sanctuary on isola polvese and camp out, as no-one lives there, and all you hear is the beat of big wings, the lapping of the water and the wind in the trees...

so i may be able to generate some extra income renting out the house summertime, and stay down on the water, which makes the ever-warming summers a lot easier to handle.

some great info, thanks, people

'The history of public debt is full of irony. It rarely follows our ideas of order and justice.' Thomas Piketty